| Summary: | This study discusses the tense, aspect and mood-modality system of the Turkish spoken in Cyprus. Initially a theoretical outline of the concepts of tense, aspect and mood-modality in general and that of the Turkic finite system is given followed by that of the historical development of Turkish grammar-writing tradition. Modern Standard Turkish (MST), being the standard form used by the speakers of Turkish in Cyprus, has always been the dominant variety in formal environments and therefore the donor variety in inter-varietical contacts especially since 1974. Accordingly MST has contributed to development of the Cypriot variety immensely and likewise the tense, aspect, mood-modality system of the standard form based on Göksel-Kerslake's classification sets a good example for the Turkish spoken in Cyprus as well. The parent variety of Turkish spoken in Cyprus was Old Anatolian Turkish (OAT), therefore the main source contributing to the formation of the Turkish variety spoken in Cyprus. It is possible to credit OAT for the diversities of the modern Cypriot variety together with the contact induced diversities. However OAT, being a variety of a multicultural region, itself needs to be socio-linguistically tackled. The lack of information on the Turkification process of Anatolia and on the differences between OAT varieties entails complications in establishing the outlines of the formation stage of the Turkish language in Anatolia. Nevertheless example texts in OAT grammatical studies are sufficient to systemize the finite verbal forms of the variety according to Göksel-Kerslake's classification. It is concluded that the finite verbal system of the Turkish spoken in Cyprus is identical with that of MST in some areas whereas it shows great parallelism with that of OAT in other aspects. Additionally the variety accommodates local forms, which are internal developments in some cases and contact induced in other cases.
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